The present invention relates to a suspension control apparatus mounted on a vehicle such as a four-wheeled automobile, and preferably used to damp an oscillation of the vehicle.
Generally, a vehicle such as an automobile includes a damping force adjustable shock absorber mounted between a vehicle body and each axle, and a suspension control apparatus configured to adjust a damping force characteristic of the shock absorber (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Public Disclosure No. 2011-131876). This kind of suspension control apparatus according to a conventional technique detects a vertical oscillation of a vehicle as a sprung speed or a sprung acceleration, and controls the shock absorber so as to generate a damping force according to the detected speed and the like.
The suspension control apparatus according to the conventional technique outputs a control signal based on, for example, Skyhook control to the shock absorber to control a damping force to be generated. In this case, there is such a problem that, because a damping force of a vehicle is determined based on a control instruction, and the instruction may be requested even for a region in which the shock absorber cannot control, the control instruction suddenly changes when a stroke of the shock absorber reverses between an extension stroke and a compression stroke, leading to occurrence of a jerk.